Relationships have a chance of forming as you enter each region (Image credit: Red Hook) Fight the darkīy comparison, Darkest Dungeon 2's combat is far stronger than the first game, made flashier with new 3D animations, and easier to understand via tokens. That said, the sheer groundwork required to reach that point in terms of persistent progression is a big time commitment, and one I'm not convinced the game's five regions and nodes can necessarily bear the weight of, no matter how many times they're recombined.

While it's down to luck whether these are actually useful, they do encourage you to use your hero in different ways, rather than relying on the same few attacks.ĭarkest Dungeon 2 wants you to reach a point where you have every character, ability, and path unlocked, and I bet it's a lot of fun to randomise your party and experiment with roles and ranks, or just pick whoever has the best quirks at the start of a run and go from there.

This adds a random mutual buff to two of their abilities. If two of your heroes gain a positive affinity by fighting together, keeping stress low, and doing stuff at the inn between each region, there's a chance they form a bond. Relationships also seem to push you towards being more flexible. It's a fun tactical experience on the whole, but it can border on being a bit of a slog at times. But at the same time, it's placing a final boss at the end of each run that you're striving to defeat, and the fastest way to do that isn't to experiment and invest with lots of heroes, but to prioritise strengthening a single party. On some level it wants you to cast the net wide experiment with multiple characters, and it incentivises this by giving each hero specific goals for candle rewards, paths that focus their role, and random starting quirks.

But that's where Darkest Dungeon 2 is confusing, especially for those who played the first game.

Admittedly, that's my own fault for not playing many other characters and prioritising abilities for a single team of heroes I like and want to make strong.

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